Pulled Under the Hill
by Scrax
Summary: New characters, same universe, inspired by holly blacks modern faerie tales, following an elvin boy named Epsilon and a human girl named Amber


**Pulled Under the Hill**

Epsilon sat at the table with his friends, Pete and Rowyn, during his third block, chatting while the teacher was giving a routine lesson in algebra 2. His shoulder length, snow white hair resting on his think black hoody, and his turbo green eyes looking all around the room at nothing, unable to concentrate on the teacher's boring lesson. The teacher decided to get back at him for not listening.

"Okay, who would like to tell me what the answer to this problem is?" as he points to the marker board. "Ah, Epsilon. Thank you for volunteering".

Epsilon's head shot up and he stares at the teacher slightly surprised. "Sorry could you repeat the question?"

"Yes, the answer to this quadratic equation?"

"Oh," as he scans the board quickly. "The answers are…"

"You may use a calculator you kn…"

"Negative three and two point six."

Everyone looks at Epsilon, surprised; they can't believe that he did the advanced problem in his head. Everyone including a girl named Amber. Her sky blue eyes fixed unbelievingly on Epsilon through her long brown hair.

The teacher, disappointed that he could not lecture the student, turns back to the board and continues with the lesson; and Epsilon feels his phone vibrate in his pocket. He pulls it out slowly and reads the text. "There's no way you should've been able to do that in your head" from an unknown sender. He quickly scans the room and sees Amber still staring at him. He decides to text her back.

"You jealous or something?"

"Not one bit!" as he notices her face go beat red and she turns her head away from him.

After quickly saving her number in his contacts he answers back. "How and why did you get my number anyway?"

"I…don't need to answer that!"

"Fine with me, after all, you are only human."

"What…does that imply your not?"

"Stick to your faerie tales…" As he stands up, the lunch bell rings, as if he knew it would, and he walks out of the room. Amber shoots up and tries to follow him as best she can. When she reaches the door she is surprised that he has completely disappeared from the mass of students. Not only was he the tallest kid in her grade but he was the only person she'd ever seen with white hair that young. She decides to dig deeper.

"Hey Rowyn, you know where Epsilon goes for lunch?"

"No he disappears during lunch. I've never seen him eat here once" and he walks away to the cafeteria.

"Amber goes to the café and finds her friend that has the same lunch as her, jade. When she finds her Jade speaks first.

"If you keep asking people things like that they are going to think you like him."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"To be honest I'm not sure: He's easily the weirdest kid I've ever seen that's for sure."

"What do you know that's weird about him?"

"Well first, his hair color and eye color are natural. Secondly, on the first day that he moved here, he was walking around school with black lips and black eye liner. Well, I thought it was eye liner until was rubbing his eyes all day and none came off, then he just went in the bathroom and when he came out, the black was gone from his lips and eyes."

"They are pretty beautiful…"

"What?"

"His eyes… is that too weird?"

"Definitely."

Amber buys her food and the two eat lunch. Once she has finished, she gets up and walks around the school looking for him. When the bell rings to return to class, she hurries back and finds him sitting at his table alone because no one has arrived back yet. His eyes are closed and he seems to be quite relaxed. She sits in the seat right across from him and reaches out to touch his hair, once close to it she grabs for a few locks of it. His hand flinches up and grabs her wrist "What do you think you're doing?"

"Uuuhhhhhhh…sorry, nothing I guess." And he lets go of her.

She stands up to leave but is stopped when he asks her "Hey, what's your name?"

"Amber?"

"Well, Amber, could you not be so close, your smell is intoxicating and I don't want to get addicted to something I can't have."

"Uh, okay, I guess." And she goes back to her seat and sits down so that Rowyn may retake his seat and the class begins again.

The next day before the first bell that automatically unlocks the door to school, Amber sits outside on the steps in the newly cold November air, while tiny snowflakes fall around her. She did not anticipate that it would snow so soon and was too preoccupied to bring a sweater. Her phone vibrates and she reads the message. "Hey…are you cold?" and she replies.

"Yes I am…why?" And she looks around for Epsilon, whom she figures must be able to see her shivering from a certain vantage point. She spots him lying in a branch in a nearby tree. She looks back at her phone as it vibrates.

"Because I'm not. You need a sweatshirt or something?" She looks up blushing. She shifts backwards on the stair in excitement, for Epsilon has managed to come to a comfortable halt right in front of her without her even hearing him, and he is holding his hoody out to her. She smiles and he lays it across her shoulders so it hangs down her back. She slips her arms into the arms of the hoody which are slightly to long for her, her finger tips barely peaking out of the ends of the sleeves including her thumbs in the holes he cut for them to be feed through when he first got it.

"How'd you get over here so fast?" She manages to say to him.

"Magic, how else?" he walks up the steps and touches the handle as soon as the bell rings and he opens the door and heads inside. Amber stands up and runs after him to catch up. Once she has she garbs his hand and he stops walking.

"Not everything is a faerie tale, you know?"

"So you say, Amber, so you say"

They go into class before everyone else and Amber takes the seat right next to his. When Pete and Rowyn see this they happily leave the two in peace after seeing her wearing his sweatshirt. "Do…do you want to come over my house on Saturday?"

"Bad idea, I'd like to, but I'm I can't, sorry."

"Why not?"

"Because I can't get to close to you."

"But why?"

"I hope you never find out…Just please don't be angry with me."

"I'm not…" and she thinks to herself. "Whys he always so conscious of how I feel about him?"

"What is it you want from me anyway?"

"I don't know, there's just something about you…you're different."

"Yeah yeah I know I'm the freakiest kid in school, whatever."

"No, I… I like those things about you. You're different in a good way to me, your eyes are the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."

"Look…it's not that I don't like you, but, I just wish you weren't built to feel this way around me, I don't know. I can't explain it."

After being in class together for another two blocks, the lunch bell rings and Amber pops up right behind Epsilon, planning to follow him. When they get to the door none of the other students have even stood up yet. When Epsilon exits the classroom Amber begins to feel nauseas. A ringing flows through her head and she shuts her eyes and holds her head. A few seconds later when she opens her eyes the pain, nauseas, and Epsilon have disappeared.

She walks out of the building and onto the front steps to see if she can find him outside. The snow has been falling all day; the soft white powders now halfway up her calves. She jogs to the tree Epsilon was in that morning and takes shelter under its branches. She turns to look down the road to see if he is there, instead she sees a boy much older looking then him who doesn't quite have normal proportions. As she thinks of all of Epsilon's strange comments she finds the boy to look very inhuman, when he sees her he stops, sticks his nose up and seems to smell the air.

Amber, starting to get nervous, walks back toward the school to go back to lunch, but she only makes it a few steps before her whole body begins to feel fatigued and she sinks to her knees in the snow. When she looks up she sees the boy standing right in front of her and she thinks to herself, "He did the same thing as Epsilon did…he's fast."

The boy speaks harshly to her "You wear his clothing? You must be very important to that betrayer." Her eyes begin to flutter and she falls sideways into the snow unconscious. The boy's features change around, his skin turning green and his mass expanding upward and out, his eyes turn a brilliant shade of gold. "The king will be pleased to hear the trolls have captured the likes of you."

Back inside the school, Epsilon walks back into his class with everyone else and sits down; he quickly realizes that Amber did not return from lunch. He pulls out his phone and texts Rowyn, "Did you see where Amber went?"

Nah she went looking for you again."

Epsilon raises his hand and speaks to the teacher. "Sir may I use the restroom?"

"Sure," The teacher responds. Epsilon gets up and heads for the door "as long as you can answer me a question."

"Negative twenty-nine point sixty-four." He leaves and walks outside to the front of the school and sees where a mass had been lying in the snow and a pair of footprints leads away to the town cemetery. "Oh this is bad." And he makes sure no one is around. He looks up to the sky and expands his arms out to their full wingspans. "Gotta release the glamour!" as his hair begins to grow out more and black pigments form around his eyes and on his lips until they are completely black, his ears, now pointed grow up through his hair so the tips are visible, all throughout he grows a total of 5 inches to come to a comfortable 6 foot 9. Next blue and red sparks form around him as a full body black hooded cloak forms on him, then a giant sheath on his back, and a 5 foot broad sword comes to his hand, the blade is made of obsidian, the cross guard thick red dyed glass and the hilt is wrapped in black leather.

"I just hope I can get there in time." As he sprints off following the footprints."

When Amber regains her consciousness, she feels she is being carried. She looks around and sees the green creature is the one holding her, and she's being carried up a hill in Woodstock Cemetery. Once at the top of the hill she hears stones grinding together and she is let down on her feet, still woozy she stumbles a little, and she folds her arms in Epsilon's Sweatshirt wishing she were with him. In front of her stands a tall pale figure with large pointed ears, black lips and eyes and long blonde hair. Uncontrollably nauseas, the only thing she can manage to say is " You look like him…"

The elf takes hold of her, as the troll stays behind to guard the entrance, and walks down steps into a stone opening in the ground, disguised as a grave. "Keep dreaming." The elf replies and they are submerged into the darkness under the hill. She is led through dirt tunnels and then one last turn and she is brought through a heavy wooden door. Two pixies come to greet her and the Elvin man. "I've brought you a new toy." the elf says calmly and he lets go of Amber, the two girls take her gently by the hands and lead her to a long table with several magical creatures, Amber only ever dreamed of such things, here were trolls and elves and sprites and pixies of all sizes!

The girls sit her down and speak "For a human, you're pretty cute, here." One hands her an apple "You must be hungry right?" Amber takes hold of the apple and takes one bite, and she finds it to be the most enjoyable thing to ever slide down her throat. She cannot explain why, her cheeks heat up and she becomes light headed as she takes a second bite, savoring every second of the taste. One of the pixies hands her a wine glass and Amber unwillingly takes a large swig. The warmth of the food is coursing through her body and she cannot escape it. One of the pixies adds the comment.

"It did not take much at all to win this one over, did it?"

The other says, "She is quite the cutie, though."

Amber becomes intoxicated and rests her head up against one of the pixies shoulders and the other girl starts to play with and braid her lower back length brown hair, her big blue eyes unable to keep focus on anything in the room. She couldn't tell how long this went on for but when she heard the large wooden door of the room slam open it gets most of her attention. She looks up and sees that two trolls are leading a figure in a full body black cloak with a giant sheath on its back to the center of the room.

A woman walks out from behind a giant throne and into view, everyone in the room gets down on one knee besides the figure, Amber and the two pixies and say " Hail Queen Silarial!" She begins to speak to the trolls' prisoner.

"It's about time someone caught you, I was beginning to wonder id we'd ever catch you. Remove your helmet so I may see if it really is you under there, don't move otherwise or you pet over there won't be surviving" as she points in Amber's direction.

The figure looks to where the queen has pointed and sees Amber struggling to focus on reality because of the alcoholic feast she unknowingly had. He removes his hood and the white hair splays out resting around his shoulder blades, she sees the green eyes as he looks back in her eyes and she realizes he is familiar "Ep..sil..on.." she slurs unable to say it all at once. She stands warily and tries to walk, but she stumbles countless times as her eyes cannot fix on him, all of the fey in the room laugh at her pathetic attempt. When she finally makes it to him she falls to her knees and she wraps her arms around his left leg and rubs her head on it's outer thigh. He looks down at her with fury and regret for getting her mixed up in this. He looks back at the queen and pats Amber's head and removes her from his person. She stops and just sits there on the floor.

He forces a smile to his lips " New deal" he proclaims, and then without a trace slips into mid air. A few moments later the two trolls that brought him in have there neck's sliced wide open and they fall back, dead. Again in a few more seconds the Elvin man that brought Amber down there has his sword stolen from its' sheath on his belt and it is then rammed through his heart from behind. Finally he reappears behind Silarial with his blade threatening to slice through her neck as well " You let us walk out or you're the one that won't be surviving."

"…Fine, I have no choice."

Epsilon walks her to Amber and he takes her by the hand as the whole room watches them, and leads them to the door. Once through he throws the queen back inside and slams the doors and them magically locks it from the outside. "Human entertainment never ceases to amaze them, the way a human enjoys themselves is far more desirable."

"I don't think so…"

"That's because you're drunk"

"That's what it is?"

He picks her up with one of his arms under her back and the other beneath her knees and carries her through the darkness. "You see why you were in danger now? Why I couldn't get close to you?"

"Ya…but…I still wanna be with you"

They come to the opening and walk out into the daylight and the piles of snow, the sky has cleared of clouds and the snow has stopped falling.

He lets her down and she immediately turns around and into him grasp. She leans her head on his chest and says, " You are so beautiful." And he holds her tight and runs his long fingers through her hair untwining the remaining loose braids left by the pixies. "Hey."

"What is it?" as she looks up at his face.

"What did you do to betray them?"

"Please don't be angry with me when I tell you."

"I won't be." She whispers, " I'll never be mad at you, you saved my life in there…"

"Every seven years we sacrifice a human female to our gods."

"Okay?"

"This year it was supposed to be you… I was supposed to deliver you to them last month on Halloween, that's when they take place."

"Why didn't you? And why me?

"They figured you'd be easy, which you are. I didn't because; it's very rare that a faerie falls in love with someone outside there own race, never mind the entire faerie population."

"Wait… you love me?"

"It's a very hard emotion to control for a human, nearly impossible; I think that's the only trait that humans and faeries share. Yes…I do"

She reburies her face in his chest and wraps her arms around his waist tighter. "I never thought I would hear you say that" as she gets hot in the face, " Promise me you'll say it again when I'm sober."

"So you say, Amber, so you say."

The End


End file.
